On November 23rd, the Gustavus Men’s Basketball team opened MIAC play with a home win against Macalester.

The win was a result of offensive discipline and a barrage of three-point shooting. The Gusties had only eight turnovers and hit 12 three-pointers.

Junior Logan Rezac poured in 24 points, while Sophomore Benji Lundberg added 23. Both players shot over 50 percent in the game.

Lundberg went 5-for-6 from three-point range, while also adding a game-high seven assists.

Macalester started hot in this one, getting out to a 11-5 lead about midway through the first half of play.

The Gusties responded quickly with nine unanswered points to take their first lead. However, the Scots were able to retake the lead with about five minutes remaining in the half.

The Gusties came back with a 16-6 run to close out the half. This left them with a 37-21 lead going into halftime.

Gustavus came out firing in the second half, as they started with a 10-2 run in the first three minutes. They made 5-of-6 shots in that span.

The Gusties led by 19 with just over nine minutes left in the game. However, the Scots went on a 15-1 run over the next five minutes. This cut the Gustie lead to five.

The Gusties were able to hold the Scots off and increase their lead to double digits, and secure the win.

Gustauvs shot 42.2 percent from the field, while also shooting 12-of-31 from three and 13-of-18 on free throws.

“I thought we rebounded alright, we only gave up a couple offensive boards,” Head Coach Mark Hanson said. “I thought we should have had a few more offensive rebounds of our own. Their defensive zone, not surprisingly, we weren’t real smooth against it. We knew they had one but they probably played more zone today than their first five games, which is because they had a hard time guarding us. I liked our attitude and energy. We certainly needed a win but mostly needed to fix a few things. We’ll see if they were fixed but I know they were improved.”

The Gusties next scheduled game was against Concordia, but it was postponed to Saturday, December 14th.

Therefore, the next game they played was November 30th when they traveled to Iowa to take on Central.

The Gusties lost this game by a score of 89-79.

The teams traded buckets for about the first ten minutes, until the Gusties scored 19 unanswered points to take a 29-13 lead midway through the first half.

They continued to play well throughout the half, and took a 50-35 lead into halftime. The Gusties shot 57 percent from the field in the first half, while they held the Dutch to 38 percent.

The Gusties reached their largest lead of the day at 64-46 with about 14 minutes left in regulation, but the Dutch eventually came back to tie the score at 77.

After the Gusties missed two three-point shots in the final minute, the game went to overtime.

The Dutch held the Gusties to just two points in the extra frame, and were able to secure the comeback win.

Junior Isaac Douglas led Gustavus with 15 points, while Sophomore Marten Morem added 13 off the bench.

Sophomore Jake Guse finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

“The game didn’t end how we wanted by any means, we were up big and ended losing in OT, but we realize what lost us the game,” Lundberg said. “We had way too many turnovers and committed too many fouls in order to win. However, those are two areas we are in control of, we just need to make smarter decisions on both ends of the floor.”

With the loss, the Gusties fall to 1-3 overall. However, there is still plenty of hope and optimism for the season.

“The season is still relatively early, and we are just trying to figure each other out and build our team chemistry on the court. The main point of emphasis is just focusing on the little things on defense and offense; which we have been continually improving on in each of our first four games.” Lundberg said.

The Gusties will host Hamline for a 7 p.m. showdown on Wednesday.